[John's POV]
I had originally planned to continue our date in a quiet park, but it suddenly struck me just how much of a big dumbo I was being.
I was dating a literal blood demon whose skin would burn to ash in direct sunlight. Keeping her huddled under a parasol and layers of clothes or confined to the Infinity Castle like some gothic princess in a tower? That was no way to treat a lady.
But then I remembered the perfect spot.
Midnight City!
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Ever since the Midnight Magician cursed the skyline in 2002, the metropolis had been swallowed by a perpetual night. It was a haven for criminals and a nightmare for the authorities. But for a blood demon who couldn't handle UV rays? It was paradise.
"Muzan-sama would have adored this place," Nakime murmured, her single eye tracking the eternally dark clouds with a rare, relaxed smile. "He would have likely tried to take over the city itself."
I was back in my Jonathan Joestar disguise, complete with the aviator sunglasses and silver earrings catching the dim streetlight, walking beside her on the dimly lit sidewalk.
Nakime, however, was the one drawing all my attention.
She wore a sleek, form-fitting black dress with minimal, tasteful green circuitry embroidered along the edges. The fabric clung to her pale skin like liquid shadow, the plunging neckline and thigh-high slit showing an exorbitant, scandalous amount of flesh. Her long, dark hair was styled to completely cover her single eye, cascading down one side of her face to give her a mysterious, undeniably gorgeous vibe in the gothic gloom.
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My mouth was watering just looking at her. Hell, I had to actively stop myself from staring at the way the dress hugged her hips.
The green circular "belt buckle" at Nakime's waist blinked with a soft, electronic whisper.
"Ship!"
"Shh," I smiled, holding a finger to my lips.
The excited Mechamorph fauna was currently acting as Nakime's dress, blending in seamlessly and keeping her company without drawing the GDA's attention. Ship's nanites had woven themselves into the fabric, letting him experience the world while staying hidden.
"Umm... Mast—Johnny," Nakime fidgeted, her cheeks flushed with a heavy blush as she desperately picked at the ridiculously high slit of her dress. "Is it really acceptable for me to wear Ship in such a scandalous manner? I feel it is highly unbecoming of a servant to bare so much skin. I feel so... exposed."
I coughed, aggressively trying to sound logical rather than a raging horndog I was.
"Nonsense! Ship was originally used to make a high-tech mech suit for his master. This dress is nothing for him. As for the skin, it's... just to make the material more breathable and comfortable for you. Optimal thermal regulation and whatnot."
Nakime gave me a severe side-eye, fully aware that I was drinking in every curve from her collarbones to her exposed thigh.
"You simply wanted an excuse to stare at my legs, didn't you?"
"I invoke the Fifth," I grinned, offering her my arm.
Suddenly, the romantic ambiance was violently shattered…for the second time. Should I even be surprised anymore?.
A deafening thunderclap of lightning boomed right behind Nakime.
A massive shockwave of dust, asphalt chunks, and debris hurled toward us.
My combat instincts, honed by the terror of Battle Beast, flared instantly. I lunged forward to cover her, but Ship was faster.
The "dress" rapidly expanded, peeling off Nakime and forming a massive, reinforced black-and-green sphere around us.
"Ship!" the Mechamorph yelled protectively, rolling us out of the suffocating dust cloud at full speed.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
A barrage of sharp, wing-like ninja stars rained down, embedding themselves deep into the concrete directly in our path, forcing the sphere to halt.
"Shiiiip?" The poor boy's single green eye darted around the sphere, trying to find the culprit.
"It's okay, boy," my muffled voice echoed from inside the dome. "We'll take it from here."
Ship's circuitry lit up bright green, and the sphere instantly receded, wrapping back around Nakime's body like liquid latex to reform her dress.
Lightning flashed above us, illuminating the silhouette of a man crouching on top of a stone gargoyle on the adjacent building. He wore a dark cape and a cowl, brooding over the city like a creature of the night.
I blinked, jumping to the assumption. "Oh, shit! Is that Batman?!"
A second later, the figure shot a grappling hook and descended rapidly to the street level, stepping into the glow of a flickering streetlight.
Finally, his Dark Purple suit became visible with the gaps in fabric showing Dark skin.
I squinted behind my aviators.
"Oh. It's just... what was it again? Night Boy?"
"Its Darkwing now!" the vigilante snarled, his voice artificially deepened by a voice modulator. "You killed my mentor! Midnight City is under my protection, you murderer!"
"Whoa! That is not a very polite way to greet a stranger in Midnight City, surely?" I said in mock surrender, stepping protectively in front of Nakime.
But another voice boomed from the sky above us.
"Stand down, Butcher!"
We turned to find a woman in full Greek Amazonian attire descending from the clouds, her auburn hair whipping in the wind. She slammed into the pavement with enough force to crack the street, pointing a glowing, runic sword directly at my throat.
"You have silenced our loved ones, and now we shall exact our righteous revenge upon you!" she declared, her eyes burning with fury.
"Oh, I get it!" I said, putting on my best confused tourist face. "You must be confusing me for that John Kaisen guy! I mean, I know he's a handsome fellow and all, but not all guys with messy hair and eye candy are the same, lady."
"You may have fooled the world, but we know exactly who you are, Kaisen!" the Batman-ripoff said accusatorily. "Don't waste our time playing oblivious! Director Cecil doesn't just appear in the middle of a public park to fetch a nobody!"
Ah. So they had been doing their homework. Or Cecil had a leak.
"Or maaaaaybe he needed someone to heal his new Guardians and I just happen to have the right skill set? You ever thought of that?" I tried to avoid a confrontation, even if my condescending tone was working against me here.
The Temu Batman grimaced, trying to find a rebuttal to my statement, but his companion was much more simple-minded.
"Enough with your trickery, Kaisen. We have inherited the wills of our predecessors and we will make you pay!" the Amazonian warrior shouted, striking a dramatic battle pose alongside the brooding detective. "So know the names of the ones who will slay you! I am War Woman II, and he is Darkwing II!"
The heavy, dramatic tension in the air shattered as a snort escaped my nose.
"Pfft... I'm sorry, I really am," I wheezed, clapping a hand over my mouth to suppress my laughter bubbling up. "But you... you just slapped a roman numeral behind their names? Come on, man. Even 'Red Robin' is more original than that."
The duo, already brimming with self-righteous rage, looked seriously appalled at being mocked during their revenge speech.
With a synchronized battle cry, they launched their attack.
I didn't even feel my heart rate spike. I fought Battle Beast, the same guy that will go on to fight Thragg within an inch of his life because he fucking could. Maybe these heroes were no slouches, but to compare levels? Hydrogen Bomb Vs Coughing Baby.
These two felt like aggressive toddlers.
I casually tapped the green circular belt buckle on Nakime's waist.
"What do you say, boy? Wanna protect mommy?"
The circuitry lit up for a heartbeat.
"Polymerization," I whispered, slotting in the ability, but instead of merging myself with the familiar, I targeted Nakime and Ship together.
The green circle flared with blinding light.
Circuitry lines rapidly extended, crawling over Nakime's skin like liquid metal.
Like a sequence straight out of Power Rangers, Ship encased her entirely, turning into a sleek, high-tech exosuit. A glowing green faceplate formed over her head, sending tactical visual feeds directly to Nakime's panicked single eye.
"Umm... Master, what is this strange armor?!" Nakime's heavily modulated voice echoed from the faceplate's speakers.
"Don't worry about it! Just feel it out, Ship will handle the heavy lifting!" I called out.
I slotted in Blade Master and Wind flight and shot forward, intercepting the new War Woman.
Dual energy blades materialized from my wrists, crackling with unstable power as I met her glowing runic sword in a heavy clash.
Sparks flew.
To my slight surprise, her magically enchanted blade was significantly stronger than my energy constructs. With a surge of Amazonian strength, she shattered my right blade and clipped my shoulder as a stream of blood oozed from the cut.
I looked at the wound with indifference. "Magic, huh?"
After surviving the life-altering trauma of Battle Beast, normal flesh wounds barely even registered as scratches anymore. They felt like papercuts.
It's actually very easy to ignore your pain receptors when a 7'6 350 kilogram monster that moved faster than you could think was charging at you with intent to kill.
I activated Greedy Healing. A golden glow lit up my palm as I pressed it to my shoulder, instantly closing the wound.
"Well, there goes ten thousand dollars down the drain," I muttered.
I reached into my item space and pulled out a Scrap Iron Candy, popping the nasty, rust-flavored sweet into my mouth. The metallic taste coated my tongue as the candy dissolved, and I felt my skin harden, my flesh density increasing to iron-like toughness for the next half hour.
War Woman II charged again, swinging for my neck with a horizontal slash.
I formed a massive bastard sword of pure energy, not to cut, but simply to disrupt her momentum and force her blade off-course.
She shattered my construct again and dragged her blade across my ribs.
But to her utter shock, the magical steel couldn't pierce my skin. It just left a faint white scratch mark against my temporarily iron-dense flesh.
I smiled, flashing my teeth, my eyes glowing as I slotted in Cat Form and Arc.
Feline ears popped through my messy black hair, and a tail extended from the base of my spine. Blue lightning crackled from my extended claws, arcing between my fingers.
"Let's take it up a level, shall we?" I taunted, my voice carrying that feral edge that came with the transformation.
"I needed to punch out some of my lingering trauma anyway."
[A/N]: Drop Them Stones if you wanna pet Ship!!
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